Tax classification of fabricated bus bodies turns on later notification wording excluding motor bodies from the motor vehicle entry.

Later taxing notifications that deliberately omitted motor bodies from the motor vehicle entry did not bring fabricated bus bodies on supplied chassis within tax as motor vehicles or component parts. The assessee only fabricated bus bodies on chassis owned by others and did not purchase chassis or sell completed buses, and the 2001 amendment did not restore motor bodies to the entry. Earlier notifications could not control the later wording, and the works-contract notification of 1987 did not change the classification. A plea based on Section 3F was not decided because it was raised belatedly. The issue was answered in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether bus bodies fabricated on chassis supplied by transporters were taxable as motor vehicles or component parts under the relevant notification, or whether they fell outside that classification.

Analysis: The assessee only fabricated bus bodies on chassis owned by others and did not purchase chassis or sell completed buses as such. Earlier notifications had expressly treated motor bodies built on chassis as part of the taxable entry, but the later notification regime deleted the words relating to motor bodies or bodies built on chassis and instead retained only motor vehicles, chassis, and their components, parts, and accessories. The subsequent amendment of 2001 only added harvester combines and did not restore motor bodies into the motor vehicle entry. The works-contract notification of 1987 was also noticed, but the plea based on Section 3F was not adjudicated because it had been raised belatedly. In the absence of any clear reintroduction of bus bodies into the motor vehicle entry, and applying consistency in the assessee's treatment in earlier years, the commodity could not be treated as motor vehicles or component parts for the disputed year.

Conclusion: The issue was answered in the negative and in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where later taxing notifications deliberately omit motor bodies from the motor vehicle entry, fabricated bus bodies on supplied chassis cannot be taxed as motor vehicles or component parts merely by reference to earlier notifications or by treating the omission as accidental.

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